28. Pop-up Stoop Culture

The temporary nature of pop-ups mean that they can function as initial or intermediate steps larger, more expensive, and longer-term solutions that require more time and energy to establish. In this case, stoop culture is a multi-variable ideal that involves housing, walkability, proximity of stoops to sidewalks, and contemporary social dynamics. To really create the interactivity that swirls around stoop culture would be to address each of those different variables.

Interestingly, you can take just the stoop itself and people recognize it for what it is: a place to sit and engage or observe. As a pop-up installation, a stoop can still serve as a device to support social connectivity. There are many different types of pop-ups, all with different levels of familiarity (from little free libraries to Park(ing) Day parklets), but this iteration seems to be both clearly recognizable from its original source and understood in its temporary value (creating social interaction). Which in-and-of-itself is the holy grail of pop-ups: nostalgia and discovery, familiarity and freshness, whimsy and utility.